The battle of Paisley starts in earnest

'Now, all trips out of Glasgow even those as far as Paisley, that most desirable of destinations will be carefully monitored and controlled.' Tom Morton in the Scotsman, 24 th September 1997.

Swords drawn in fight for Paisley seat

By Euan McColm in the Scotsman 20 th October 1997

This morning, Labour tries to take the shine off the launch of the Scottish National Party campaign in the Paisley South by-election, when Douglas Alexander, the Labour candidate, holds a press conference with the Scottish office education and industry minister, Brian Wilson.

Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is expected to visit before polling day on 6 November.

The SNP's Ian Blackford will hit back with the launch of an election flier praising Mr McMaster for his work, and claiming Labour let him down.

Mr McMaster won the seat at a by-election in 1990 with a majority of 5,000

Labour looks set to clear the neighbouring MP, Tommy Graham, of allegations that he hounded Mr McMaster to his death. However, the Renfrewshire West MP still faces disciplinary action over claims that he smeared Irene Adams MP, damaging the party's image.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, will join Mr Blackford to kick off his campaign. The party will attack Labour's record on Renfrewshire council, dogged in recent years by sleaze allegations.

Mr Blackford's newsletter pays tribute to the late Mr McMaster, but carries a brutal attack on Labour. Apparently laying to rest any rumoured deal for an easy relationship between the two parties, it reads: "Gordon was a good councillor, a good council leader and a good MP. But despite his efforts the local council is still riddled with corruption and sleaze."

The Labour Party last night fired back the first warning shot to the Nationalists. A spokesman said of the SNP campaign claim: "We are taking steps to investigate the Labour Party in Renfrewshire and will be putting our own house in order. We challenge the SNP to do the same."

He added: "The whole thing will be about Government delivering on its pledges.

"We will be talking about what we are doing for education, for example."

From the Tory camp, the shadow foreign secretary, Michael Howard, yesterday talked up chances of a revival in the party's fortunes in Scotland ahead of the by-election.

Despite being virtually wiped off the political map north of the Border in the general election, Mr Howard insisted the party would be well-represented in the new Scottish parliament.

He said the Scottish party would fight a "vigorous" campaign in the contest the constituency left vacant by the death of Gordon McMaster.

However, the former home secretary told BBC Scotland's Eye to Eye programme he "didn't know" whether the Tories would actually win the seat. He said: "Certainly, we will fight very hard in Paisley South and fight very hard to get as many Tories as possible elected to a Scottish parliament."

Going by the Conservative share of the vote at the last general election, Mr Howard stressed the Tories would have mustered about 20 seats in the new Scottish parliament under proportional representation. He claimed a new sense of optimism at grass roots level would ensure a better showing.

After his two-day visit to Scotland last week, Mr Howard insisted: "The general attitude and morale of the people I met was really very encouraging indeed. Their morale is high and you know that we are going to be on the way back."

He acknowledged the irony of relying on proportional representation and the new Scottish parliament to get the Tory bandwagon rolling again, as both ideas were strongly opposed by the Tory government.

Earlier, Mr Howard accused the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, of making an "extraordinary mess" of the Queen's Indian trip in a gaffe-prone first six months in office.

And, with Britain hosting the four-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Edinburgh this week, he added, Mr Cook needed to learn quickly from his mistakes to avoid another public relations disaster.

He said: "Robin Cook has given offence to more people in a shorter time than any other foreign secretary that I can remember."